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EPA’s work in derailment far from done

An Associated Press article about the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, said the accident prompted a national reckoning with rail safety and calls for reform, although proposals for new industry rules stalled in Congress.

Unfortunately, though, with each new development related to the 2023 accident, that well-intentioned reckoning still underway seems farther from completion than it was just days before.

A new development, reported in the June 4 Mirror, provided ample testimony to that.

According to that article, a specialized plane equipped with advanced sensors that the government deploys to chemical disasters could have helped authorities avoid needlessly blowing open five rail tank cars and burning their toxic contents — an operation about which East Palestine residents are destined to harbor long-term health concerns such as cancer.

However, a report released June 3 exposed the fact that the plane in question was not called into action until the night before the rail cars filled with vinyl chloride were blown open because federal Environmental Protection Agency officials monitoring the situation on the ground did not fully understand the aircraft’s sophisticated capabilities.

That can be characterized as a mind-blowing disclosure about which people of this country should be alarmed.

If such incompetence happened in East Palestine, where might it rear its ugly head next?

The National Transportation Safety Board has characterized blowing open the tank cars a key error.

State and local officials leading the derailment response feared that the tank cars would explode, even though the limited temperature information they had indicated the cars were starting to cool off.

The plane could have been a big asset from the get-go because of its ability to measure slight temperature differences, even differences of less than 1 degree. But the plane’s value was made impotent by the EPA on-scene coordinator’s mistaken belief that the plane could measure only much larger differences.

The NTSB faulted Norfolk Southern for not sharing the viewpoint that the tank cars were unlikely to explode, but the railroad has defended itself, saying that conflicting information in its possession left its experts worried about a dangerous chemical reaction.

In its official response to the report prepared by the EPA’s Inspector General, the EPA announced its development of a detailed fact sheet dealing with the plane and its plan to train its emergency responders over the next year about the plane’s capabilities and when it should be deployed.

The EPA should keep its proverbial fingers crossed that there are no incidents reminiscent of East Palestine prior to that training having been completed.

Then there is the allegation/disclosure that the sensor plane wasn’t even called until two nights after the derailment — when the vent-and-burn operation already was being contemplated. Although having taken off from its Texas base within a half hour of being summoned, the plane reportedly didn’t make a pass over the derailment site that night.

Weather conditions kept it from flying during the burn operation the next day, adding to a situation having gone haywire.

It is clear that the EPA’s work isn’t done in connection with what occurred at East Palestine.

In fact, like the national reckoning related to East Palestine that seems often to be taking backward steps, the EPA’s quality of performance seems to be following close behind.

That must change, and Congress needs to quit stalling.

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